At Nature's Mercy

Whether it be earthquakes, cyclones or train wrecks (hey, human stupidity can be a force of nature sometimes) Asia is getting the living hell kicked out of it about now. Japan's had a lull in the past few years, but that doesn't mean the folks here don't have their daily reminders that they can lose it all in a New York minute if Mother Nature's not feeling so fresh. That goes doubly for the people of Kagoshima as I was able to witness...awesomely.

Did I mention I didn't have a tent when I camped at the beach? It's not the lack of privacy that bothered me in the morning though, it was the sun--Kyushu's southern climate is much much different than in the north if this intense 7-friggin'-AM sun is any indication. But hey, as the adage goes, early bird gets the first Starbucks latte. The manager must have thought I was a stalker. I mean, I'd been in town 36 hours and already come in three times for a tall latte. She was definitely stalk-worthy though (did I just say that? Incoming restraining order), as indicated by her putting on a Doors greatest hits album and flipping ahead to Roadhouse Blues to start the morning. What kind of woman does that?

But getting back on track, under power of Trandor and latte I hit the road heading west, young man, towards Kagoshima. There's really not a lot of spectacular junk between Miyazaki and Kagoshima other than some nice meandering rivers, farm after farm after farm and then the city of Miyakonojo, and that's not too hot. A bit north of this midway netherland is Kirishima National Park, known for its volcanic vents, hot springs and as one of You Only Live Twice's filming locations. It was good enough for Connery, but too far out of the way for me. Instead I zipped down the east coast of Kinko Bay to the fishing town of Tarumizu to their truly awesome michi no eki. What the hell is a michi no eki you ask? It translates to "road station" and are little roadside marketplaces, rest stops, photo ops and more that serve to promote the area it's situation in. They're all nationally funded by, I guess, the MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) and I have no clue why they place them in ABC municipality while not in XYZ. Anyways, I'm on a quest to visit all ninety four eki in Kyushu--by bicycle whenever possibly--and I've got a good fifteen down, but so far Tarumizu's has been the most impressive. There are a few criteria an eki needs to fulfill to be on my good-list: a nice view of something; and interesting or tasty soft-serve ice cream flavor; and finally a gimmicky hook, anything will suffice. Tarumizu has a fantastic view of Sakurajima's eastern slope over a bay filled with boats and crab cages, biwa (loquat) soft serve ice cream and finally a free foot bath. On top of the foot bath it has a normal onsen too at the ridiculously low! price of 330 J-bucks, which includes all the trimmings. I got an extra value when I came in for my morning bath this day --gangsters, thrown in for free! Without going into the details deeply, the infamous yakuza in Japan can be identified by their full-back tattoos of mystic Asian imagery, most onsen like to bill themselves as family establishments rather than gangster havens and bar tattooed folk from entering. It's technically discrimination and against the law to do such a thing, but when have the Japanese authorities ever upheld those laws? I didn't see one of the ubiquitous warning signs here, but was still a bit surprised to get my toiletries out, get naked, go into the bathing area and plunk down next to two dudes with the previously mentioned back tattoos. I tell this to my Japanese friends and their reaction is something like "Oh damn man...I would've jumped off the balcony to get away from them. Scary!" Truth is that I've never had anything but pleasant experiences with yakuza--seriously, I've talked them up, poured them drinks, been given directions by one and drank at their bars. If I was going to be shot, stabbed or robbed by them it would've happened already.

And now I'm really sleepy after last night's antics in Oita's ever-amusing Miyako-machi, so I'll finish this post tomorrow and leave it at this for the day.

--Matt